Media Narrative of Impending Texas ‘Blue Wave’ Falls Flat

Despite good voter turnout in the Democratic Party primaries in the Lone Star State[1], Texas Democratic voter turnout is still smaller than the Republican primary voter turnout. By some estimates, Republican primary voters numbered over 1.5 million and Democrats lagged behind at 1 million, a difference of 500,000.

But, the media promoted it as a potential Democratic Party “blue wave” in the 2018 midterm elections in Texas, despite the overall primary voter numbers. It is true that there is more enthusiasm among Democratic Party voters and this year’s primary voters are double the last midterm cycle for Democrats.

The reality is that the percentage of overall voters is still 40 percent for the Democratic Party. In 2014, that figure was 30 percent but is still below the 44 percent that voted in the 2016 presidential election.